Has anyone tried to outrank an .edu site?

My client wants me to rank in school related keywords and after checking the competition most sites that comprise the first 1st page are all .edu sites but have small anchored backlinks or backlinks to the page. On average of all keywords #1 has around 50 backlinks to the page .edu site pr 5 and position 2 - 10 has around 0-20 backlinks to the page. Can it be possible? Im not looking to be number 1 im happy sitting around 2nd or 3rd place.

Knocking off the #1 site for a given keyword involves great content and strong backlinks. Long tailed leywords are easier to achieve top rankings than short tailed keywords. If you plan to knock off USC or Notre Dame, be prepared to spend what they spend.

Extremely hard. I've manage to get a blogspot page to the 2nd spot of a particular keyword but just couldn't beat the first spot which is a .edu site.

Don't forget, edu sites usually have a lot of reliable and powerful backlinks. Other .edu sites or even .gov sites are linking to them. And not to mention perhaps huge authority sites like wikipedia or news websites.

yay, yeah, but i do see some .edu sites sitting 2nd - 10th place that have 0 backlinks on page. hehe, yeah im confident with my method but im just afraid that i cant beat the .edu sites authority. but its worth a shot i guess. hehe! 2nd spot is my target and it has massive local searches every month 2nd place will be worth it.

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